# of Albums J has sold?

[Chris]

OK I started thinking about this the other night, don’t ask me why.

I was thinking about J and his touring and how it would make scenes for him to tour in citys/countrys that he has had the most record sales in, right? With me so far? <img> Then I started wondering how many albums J as really sold? <img> (At this point I’m not even thinking about all the Dino or side projects or compilations that J has been on) To keep things simple (if that is possible) I was curious about just the last album…J and Fog and how many it has sold and in which citys and countrys maybe.

I have made an effort to lookup info using Billboard.com, but as you could guess, it looks limited in the information it will provide. I tried using a few different word searches to find some sort of record sales but have had not luck with my short effort.

So would anyone know how it could be found out this type of information? <img> Or if anyone else even cares? <img>

Let me know what everyone thinks.
Sincerely, Chris

[rosa]

You know, I’m jealous that I didn’t come up with this question.

I’ll try searching around a bit.

xo
r

[AndrewD]

Have spoken to a relative who’s in the celebrity magazine business – thought he would know a decent web site to find out info like this. Apparently not though – He’s suggesting ringing J’s press office and asking them! You might have to pretend to be actually from the press, but I’m guessing J’s "people" would be fine about giving out info to Jo Public…haven’t a clue how you’d get J’s press office’s number though <img>

[Javro]

more than the colourblind james experience, less than Madonna. Great question, hope we get the answer.

[SG]

I was wondering about this too;I heard that Tortoise sells 100 000 albums when they put out an album,they`re not that well known,J must be selling more then that.

[ham steak]

If you can find someone with subscription access to SoundScan, you could probably check it out there. And then post it here. Their website is useless without a subscription. Also, a ton of indie stores do not report (like Newbury Comics) so it’s not terribly accurate for something like More Light. They also "weight" certain stores’ numbers to account for nearby retailers who don’t report. It’s a scam just like the charts themselves, but it’s the only game in tracking numbers and localized trends from afar. ‘Scuze the rant…. I worked in music wholesale and retail for nine years.

[AndrewD]

This has really got me going, can’t wait to find out the answer….sad? me? never….

[FlyingCloud]

AnthonyG interviewed J in March this year, and he asked J this question:
</font><blockquote><font>quote:</font><hr><font> Anthony: How is More Light doing? Is it selling well or has it sold well compared to previous Dinosaur releases ?
J: Oh, no, not really. I don’t think the label did too much with it here. It did pretty good in Japan, and okay in Europe, but America, not to good.
</font><hr></blockquote><font>

[Chris]

Seems like a lot of good conversation with this topic. I also thought about requesting the info from the label that put out More Light or from J’s press office. But, I thought for sure I would be able to find something online first <img> …guess not.

I now remember the interview that FC listed, when AnthonyG talked to him. I almost forgot about that. When I looked at Billboard.com they have a log in as well, however I didn’t take the time to see if by being a member it would give me the info. I’m still looking into it myself. Thanks for everyones insight so far. <img>

Sincerely, Chris

[Anthony]

in my days, ive bought at least 3 of each album. for myself or for others. i know he sold a lot of Where You Been. I remember seeing that in the back of Rolling Stone in ’93. was in the alternative or college category for a long time.

[everyonelovesjaron]

According to the RIAA, none of J.’s (or Dino’s) albums went gold, which for the layperson means sold 1/2 a million copies.

[everyonelovesjaron]

In addition to my last comments, I’d like to point out that until recently, the RIAA used only soundscan and other such figures thast are used by the Walmarts and Best Buy’s of the world. Many indie record stores don’t use these to this day. Plan 9, the big indie store in Richmond doesn’t, and it’s sales weren’t until recently added into sales figures.

Since Dino’s biggest albums had huge indie appeal and were in the late 80’s/early 90’s, some of their records COULD have went gold, but the figures aren’t there to verify.

So, in other words, I’ve managed to contribute nothing productive as usual. Woohoo!

<small>[ 08-02-2002, 11:06 AM: Message edited by: Jaron ]</small>

[Chris]

To:…Jaron, hamicus steakum, AndrewD, deepsludge, anthonyg, Javro, rosa, ammaringnyc
and anyone else that has given this topic a read and for your help and ideas as well.

As I may or may not have mentioned before I’m still on the trail of albums sold. During the last few days I have found some interesting stuff during my hunt. Some stuff you may not care about, and some stuff I’m sure you will really not care about. <img>

Seems that in order to get any realy information from BillBoard.com you really need to have a subscription to be able to log in. I think I saw that the basic membership was like 6 months for $155; seems a little hi and I would rather use the bucks to travel to see J. (I think you would agree <img> )

SoundScan is not helpful at all. They give No information, Unless you are a member. At least with BillBoard you can look at basic charts of sales for whatever it is worth.

I did find something of possible interest. The place is http://WWW.chartattack.com This is a chart for CANADIAN CAMPUS/COMMUNITY RADIO AIRPLAY. Kind of cool. They have some other good info for you to check out. There photo section my be of some interest to a few of you since they give the story with the photo and most of what I saw was photos of bands/people from live shows. Most inportant about Chartattack, although I didn’t find anything about album sales/totals I did find the listing for J & the Fog on the chart of Top 50 Albums. One was for the week of Oct. 13th and Oct. 27 of 2000. Looks like J got as high on the chart as 25th. Before and after these days I didn’t see J listed. You can check the chart out at.. http://www.chartattack.com/charts/college/old50/oct2000/20001013.txt

I also wanted to say that I checked out Ultimatum Music and J is not listed under Artists, but did find that you can still buy the album from them since he is still listed ONLY under Releases, that I could find.

I also checked out Artemis Records. J is not listed as an Artist and when I looked I saw no news about him. I guess in regards to Ultimatum and Artemis it should be no surprise if J is considering a new label or other options not to be listed (I guess <img> ).

OK I just wanted to let everyone know that my hunt is not over! My next step will be contacting Ultimatum and Artemis and see if J’s "press people" would be willing to be of some assistance as well. I will also be contacting the local independant radio station, which has played J & the Fog (and yes I heard them playing J myself), to see if they could be of assistance as well. I just wanted to let everyone know so we are not over lapping any efforts. Maybe the next post I make will really have good info to it. Thanks for reading this if you took the time <img>

Sincerely, Chris

[Anthony]

i used to cruise the record stores looking for Dino. remember seeing a good variety of his records in like ’90-’94. bought Green Mind and Bug on release day, and there were a couple other copies sitting there on the shelf. remember seeing at least 5 copies of Where You Been when it was famous. That shows that the more copies you have, the better you’re selling. Used to see a lot of Without a Sound and Whatevers Cool With Me too.

[ammaringnyc]

I rember reading that Where You Been sold like 250,000 copies. That was his biggest selling album. When I talked to his old manager he said that they still sell like a thousand old albums a week. If that were true he would have sold another 200,000 old albums by now because that was 4 years ago now. I don’t think J has sold over a half a million records combined but maybe. Even if not at least one out of every hundred people in America have one of his album.

[Author]

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